Brian J. Hawkins, PhD Pluristyx, Inc.

Dr. Brian Hawkins is Chief Technology Officer at Pluristyx, Inc., an advanced therapy tools company providing seamless client support to cell therapy groups through CMC consulting, contract development services, and research- and clinical-grade Ready-To-Differentiate (RTD™) Pluripotent Stem and Ready-to-Use (RTU™) Differentiated Cells. Dr. Hawkins received his Ph.D. in Molecular Cell Biology and Biotechnology from Virginia Tech and completed his postdoctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania, after which he moved to the University of Washington School of Medicine to serve as an assistant professor and founding member of the Mitochondria and Metabolism Center. Dr. Hawkins transitioned to industry and served as Scientific Applications Director at BioLife Solutions, where he aided numerous commercial groups optimize their cryopreservation protocols for their cell therapy products. Dr. Hawkins joined Pluristyx in 2019 and continues to provide cryopreservation expertise through both consulting and wet-bench contract development services. Dr. Hawkins is an internationally recognized cryopreservation expert and conference speaker on cell biopreservation and cell therapy manufacturing and scale-up. Dr. Hawkins is an active member of the PDA, where he serves as President of the Pacific Northwest Chapter, team leader for the PDA Cryopreservation Standards Initiative and as member Biopharmaceutical and Advanced Therapy Medicinal Product Advisory Boards.